Canada: Osheaga Festival, Montréal (Fri 31st July - Sun 3rd August)

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On my second full day of Montréal I went to what I partly came there for: a 3-day music festival on the St Lawrence island park Jean-Drapeau called Osheaga. The festival is possibly Canada's biggest with about 40,000 attendees each day, and attracts people from all over the continent and sometimes even from across the pond back in Europe: despite taking place in the predominantly francophone Montréal, there was a lot more English spoken at the festival than French. Saturday was a particular highlight with some of my favourite acts playing including The Dismemberment Plan - an indie band who headlined the smallest stage and whose surprisingly mature lyrics about the transitions and changes one lives through in one's mid-20s have been very important to me over the last few years since leaving on my first year abroad (to the extent that their song 'A Life of Possibilities' provided the name of this blog and my previous Year Abroad travel blog). Nick Cave can also be seen in the photos, in full Rock God Mode on the main stage - my friends Samantha and Mark (pictured), who I went with, were right up at the front and were exclaiming 'I touched Nick Cave's hand!' for hours afterwards.

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